It's Okay To Be A Kid Sometimes
by dam sprinkles of pepperony
Summary: When Percy Jackson lost his memories, he tries to remember. From Annabeth to the suspicious ambassador of Pluto, he tries to figure everything out. When Nico finds a brooding Percy, he offers to play Mythomagic with him to help. When Nico is declined, he regurgitates something a certain son of Poseidon once told him. "It's okay to be a kid sometimes." One-shot.


It's Okay To Be A Kid Sometimes

Percy sat alone at the edge of Camp Jupiter's lake, the gentle breeze caressing his hair as he stared blankly into the distance.

Despite all of Frank and Hazel's assurances that all demigods stayed at camp, he felt like he didn't belong here. This place felt foreign, unfriendly. He felt like he belonged elsewhere. He felt like he was in enemy territory, blindly walking into a battlefield, wearing a blindfold, hopelessly groping in the dark desperately for just one small memory. But he remembered nothing, but one, beautiful, glowing memory in the dark, almost, just _almost_ , illuminating his whole journey, the way he was supposed to go.

Annabeth.

His memory of her was frustratingly dim. The only thing he remembered from his life. The image of her was hazy. Whenever he almost remembered something about her, be it small things like her tinkling laughter that he always would try to remember, but when he tried to remember it, it was tantalizingly just out of his reach, then it was gone.

But he was certain she meant something to him. More than just a friendship. He thought about the way her intelligent grey eyes sparkled when she thought of something amazing; the way they narrowed while facing off a monster together with him; the way she'd laugh when he did something idiotic. Just slipping slowly away from him, out of his reach, forever.

He knew that they once shared something near, no, _in_ a lake, not unlike the one he sat at now. A happy memory.

He was also sure that this di Angelo boy he had just met had something to do with his past. When he looked shocked, frightened, even, when he saw Percy, Percy knew. The way he tried to hurriedly regain his composure. The way he twirled the skull ring on his finger when he was nervous. The way he fingered his sword. Percy somehow knew he wasn't just an ambassador of Pluto.

Percy knew he was so much more, another part of his life he couldn't remember.

Just like Annabeth.

He wanted to vent his frustration, to have someone to confide in, to talk to, to pour his heart out to. He ran his fingers through his messy, raven black hair. He stared into the lake, unseeing, trying to remember everything while he remembered nothing. He stared, with his sea green eyes, into the lake, looking at his reflection, wishing, praying to remember.

He sensed movement behind him. Nico di Angelo stepped out of a shadow slowly but deliberately, hesitantly but looking determined, and sat down next to the son of Neptune.

He looked into the blank and confused eyes of Percy Jackson, dark brown to sea green.

"Are you alright?"

Percy shook his head mutely.

"Who are you?" Percy asked, not demanding, but sad and confused.

"I'm the ambassador of Pluto."

Percy frowned. Brooding, he stared back into the lake.

"Drachmas- I mean, um, denarii for your thoughts?" Nico asked gently, making him cringe a little.

Percy glared at him, though not fiercely. "I know you're a part of my life, before I lost my memory, but you're not helping. It's really frustrating, you know?"

"I'm sorry. I can't tell you anything. I swore on the Styx. " Nico muttered.

"Would you, um, want to talk about it?" Nico asked awkwardly and rather uncharacteristically.

Percy shook his head no and smiled a little. "I have a feeling that you don't usually act like this."

Nico grimaced and said, "Yeah. You're right."

"I kind of know how you feel." Nico hesitated, and pulled some cards and some figurines out of his jean pocket. 'Would you like to play? We can, um, talk things over while we're at it."

"Is that Mythomagic?" Percy asked.

Nico nodded. "How did you know?"

"I saw Octavian and some other people play it during the war games." Percy wrinkled his nose. "It's kind of immature and… kiddy."

Nico smiled a little, dumping what looked like a whole pack of cards and figurines on the grass near the lake, while saying, looking directly into Percy's eyes again, and said quietly, "You know," Nico paused nervously, "someone once told me," he faltered and dropped his gaze but looked up again,

"That it's okay to be a kid sometimes."


End file.
